Travelling up the front in Air New Zealand business class is special. The service is impeccable, the food gourmet by recognised chefs and the wine is from the best vineyards and if a whiskey is your tipple, then single malts abound.

The Queen herself once told me how enjoyable travel up the front is and how she could lie flat and get a good night's sleep after being pampered. In her case you'd think she was used to the luxury but she was impressed which she said made her job pressing, through gloved hands, her subjects' flesh that much easier.

Today that luxury is being enjoyed by those on The Speaker's annual tour. Besides Parliament's father bear, there are four MPs on the fortnight trip to Ireland, France, Poland and Germany. All of them but one is taking their partners, wracking up a bill for the taxpayer of 138 thousand bucks.

Even though they spin the trip as working in the interests of God's Own, you'd have to ask how that interest is being served. In fact it's in their interests and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in this place who'll criticise the annual junket, essentially because most of them have been on one or will put their hand up for one in the future.

The justification is lame if the two main political players are anything to go by.

Looking rather uncomfortable Teflon John Key said anytime his wife travels abroad with him, he pays for her tickets himself. Yeah well with fifty million bucks in the bank, that's not going to send him to the poor house. Key never seemed unsure about who signed off the trips.

Well it's Parliament's paymaster taking instruction from the boss, who happens to be The Speaker.

And Labour's Andrew Little, who hasn't been in Parliament for long enough to go on a trip, rather piously said his wife doesn't travel with him on Parliamentary trips. Well she's got a job and a teenage son, so travel probably isn't at the top of her agenda right now and besides, her hubby hasn't been around for long enough for her to contemplate packing her bags.

The spin tells us this trip will strengthen some of our oldest, as well as most significant contemporary, relationships with European countries.

What's the bet though that Fletcher Tabuteau won't be a name they'll remember in just over a fortnight's time. Oh, he's a New Zealand First MP on the trip!